Wednesday, March 1, 2017

NTT DOCOMO plans to conduct interoperability testing and over-the-air field trials in Japan based on the 5G New Radio (NR) specifications being developed by 3GPP. The trials will operate in mid-band spectrum at 4.5 GHz, as well as millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum at 28 GHz, showcasing the unified 5G NR design across diverse spectrum bands. The trials intend to drive the mobile ecosystem toward rapid validation and commercialization of 5G NR technologies at scale, enabling timely commercial network launches based on 3GPP Rel-15 standard compliant 5G NR infrastructure and devices.

The trials will utilize device prototype and base station solutions from Qualcomm Technologies and Ericsson respectively, along with trial environments from NTT DOCOMO, to simulate real-world scenarios across a broad set of use cases and deployment scenarios. The trial will include 5G NR operation at 4.5 GHz, which allows a large bandwidth resulting in high data rates and good capacity with reasonable coverage to address the large number of envisioned 5G use cases.

"We are excited to conduct early 5G NR trials based on the 3GPP specification with Qualcomm Technologies and Ericsson," said Seizo Onoe, EVP and Chief Technology Officer, NTT DOCOMO. "NTT DOCOMO plans to deploy a 5G NR commercial system by 2020 and it is essential that the industry cooperate closely to create a 5G ecosystem in a timely manner. Through acceleration of the standardization and standard-compliant 5G NR trial activities, we will ensure the highly-stable 5G services."https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2017/0227_02.html

“In today’s highly competitive environment, CSPs must deliver innovative services faster, with the best end-to-end customer experience and at the lowest cost. Current network architectures, including some virtualized deployments, remain rigid and expensive to build and manage,” said Gabriele Di Piazza, vice president of solutions, Telco NFV Group, VMware. “With more than 80 NFV deployments by more than 45 CSPs serving 300 million subscribers worldwide, VMware vCloud NFV enables the transformation of network architectures, services delivery, operations and economics through a more dynamic, agile network built on software.”

Highlights:

Service Automation: vCloud NFV accelerates service creation, onboarding and deployment, and enables policy-based resource and workload allocation across the NFVI. The newest release includes the ability to embed advanced service-centric policies and resource requirements during VNF packaging and automated importing of existing VNF workloads into VMware Integrated OpenStack.

Secure Multi-Tenancy: vCloud NFV helps CSPs achieve complete service isolation in a secure multi-tenant environment across NFVI functions. Now with native integration between vCloud Director and VMware NSX network virtualization, service providers will be able to use micro-segmentation to deploy a programmable network with fine-grained security and role-based, delegated access control for both providers and tenants. As a result, multi-VNFs with multi-services will be able to seamlessly share the same infrastructure, yet have complete isolation from each other.

Operations Management: VMware vCloud NFV delivers NFVI operational automation with 360-degree visibility along with proactive and predictive analytics to deliver performance feedback and fast remediation capabilities. With the newest release, CSPs will be able to get full visibility of all components within a deployed service across overlay, underlay, virtual and physical environments through vRealize Network Insight. The vCloud NFV platform provides continuous, near real-time data on the health, performance, capacity of network resources, along with prioritized alert notifications for closed-loop integration into resource and service orchestration workflows. Open APIs provide northbound integration with leading service assurance solutions.

Carrier-Grade Availability: VMware vCloud NFV is a highly available platform providing service continuity in production networks at scale. With simplified infrastructure lifecycle management, service providers will be able to seamlessly upgrade and apply patches with minimal impact to operations and network stability. Advanced high availability (HA) features will enable intelligent and proactive HA based on VNF requirements and platform capabilities. Predictive and network-aware distributed resource scheduler (DRS) will enable proactive and predictive VNF resource monitoring and closed-loop remediation. Performance enhancements will include accelerated packet performance, and improved security hardening will be delivered through VM level encryption and secure boot.

In addition, VMware, Intel and Cloudify hosted an open VNF on-boarding hackathon at Mobile World Congress to raise industry awareness and initiate an industry review of a proposed TOSCA (Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications) based VNF Data Models agreement.

Ericsson, AT&T and Qualcomm have demonstrated a Voice over LTE (VoLTE) call for Internet of Things (IoT) on existing mobile network infrastructure, opening up opportunities to expand enterprise services to areas such as security alarm panels, remote first aid kits, wearables, digital locks, disposable security garments, and other types of IoT-enabled applications and services.

The demonstration used Qualcomm's MDM9206 LTE modem, designed to support Cat-M1/ LTE-M, as well as Ericsson LTE Radio Access Network, Ericsson IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Ericsson Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and Ericsson User Data Management network infrastructure and new software.

"AT&T is proud to participate alongside Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies to advance VoLTE support over Cat-M1/LTE-M," says Chris Penrose, President, IoT Solutions, AT&T. "The ability to support voice services is an important feature to many verticals within our IoT portfolio, including our customers in the alarm and security industry, automotive, wearables and connected health markets."

Anders Olin, Head of Network Applications, Business Unit IT and Cloud Products, Ericsson, says: "With this successful demonstration of Cat-M1/LTE-M also supporting VoLTE voice calls in IoT devices, we are providing more value to operators and users. The benefit of basic human communication blends perfectly into the IoT environment. Supported by our radio and core portfolios, it will now be feasible to globally deploy voice services for IoT cost-effectively for all kinds of industries and different use cases."

BT and Cavium announced they have joined the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) founded by companies including Facebook, Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom in 2016, and Keysight Technologies announced that it is expanding its commitment to the project.

BT

BT announced it is partnering with the TIP, which is seeking to transform how telecom networks are built, and Facebook to accelerate research into advanced telecoms technologies. As part of the initiative, BT, Facebook and TIP will work together in locations including BT Labs at Adastral Park in the UK and at London's Tech City. The relationship is intended to enable telecoms infrastructure start-ups to engage directly with experts from BT, the TIP community and Facebook.

TIP plans to establish a network of start-up acceleration centres in collaboration with major operators worldwide, and BT will host the first such centre in Europe. The UK acceleration centre joins a similar facility in South Korea, sponsored by SK Telecom. The initial focus of the UK acceleration centre will be in the areas of quantum computing, as applied to networks, and mission-critical communications.

Cavium

Cavium, a provider of semiconductor products for enterprise, data centre and wired and wireless networking, has joined TIP as part of its ongoing effort to support the development of telecom networks. Cavium will contribute wireless access technologies to TIP's OpenCellular project group, which is aiming to address the demand for faster, more agile networks.

Through the agreement, Cavium will specifically contribute and support the development of a production-ready hardware design for a single sector LTE 2T2R MIMO (64/128 user) for OpenCellular in the second half of 2017. The design will be based on its OCTEON Fusion CNF7130 baseband processor and will feature the associated end-to-end L1 to L3 software stack. Cavium will also offer open source access to certain APIs to enable enhanced capabilities for the LTE cell.

Keysight Technologies

Keysight, a supplier of electronic measurement solutions, is expanding its commitment to TIP, and as part of this partnership will co-chair a newly-formed sub-group focused on test automation within the OpenCellular project group. Keysight will contribute the open source code that supports automated testing for design verification and a low-cost manufacturing solution for OpenCellular base stations.

TIP was co-founded in February 2016 by Facebook, Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom, EE, Nokia and Intel and now claims over 450 member organisations. The project is an engineering-focused initiative supported by telecom operators, infrastructure providers, system integrators and other technology companies that is aiming to transform how telecoms network infrastructure is built and deployed.

Interxion's revenue for the fourth quarter of 2016 was €110.5 million, a 10% increase over the fourth quarter of 2015 and a 5% increase over the third quarter of 2016. Gross profit was €67.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 10% increase over the fourth quarter of 2015 and a 5% increase over the third quarter of 2016.

Some operational highlights:

Equipped Space increased by 3,000 square metres in the fourth quarter and 9,600 square metres for the full year to 110,800 square metres

Revenue Generating Space increased by 3,100 square metres in the fourth quarter and 8,100 square metres for the full year to 87,200 square metres

Utilisation Rate was 79% at the end of the year

During the fourth quarter, Interxion opened two new data centres: the first phase of its AMS8 data centre in Amsterdam, and the first two phases of its DUB3 data centre in Dublin. In addition, Interxion opened a 500 sqm expansion at its PAR7 data centre in Paris.

“Interxion continued its momentum into the fourth quarter, capping 2016 with double digit annual growth for revenues and Adjusted EBITDA, and solid margin improvement. We experienced growth across our key target segments, and we saw a continuation of strong bookings across all deal sizes,” said David Ruberg, Interxion’s Chief Executive Officer. ”Customers value our services, which are located in the main connectivity hubs across Europe, as they seek network-dense facilities where they create business value by gaining access to our vibrant Communities of Interest.”

Cisco Spark features like messaging, in-line file sharing, and high-definition video conferencing across multiple devices, can be triggered from a simple call to a mobile number. Calls can also be moved seamlessly between devices, including the newly announced Cisco Spark Board, with a simple swipe.

The network ensures seamless handover of voice calls across 2G, 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi accesses. The solution will be available to Service Provider and Enterprise customers by end of calendar year 2017.

"CMC offers Service Providers a unique competitive advantage to deliver world class business communications services via the mobile phone. This is a great example of Cisco and Ericsson innovation at work to advance the network of the future and support our mobile lifestyles," stated Yvette Kanouff, senior vice president, general manager, Service Provider Business, Cisco.

Equinix will acquire ICT-Center AG, Zurich's data center operating business in Zurich, Switzerland. The deal was valued at under $5 million.

The facility, which is adjacent to Equinix's existing Zurich International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers – ZH2 and ZH4, will add approximately 60 cabinets of sold capacity and a total colocation space of approximately 230 cabs. Equinix noted that the data center currently has a large number of network customers, which further increases network density at its Zurich campus, as well as global enterprises and financial services companies.

Equinix's Zurich data centers (ZH1, ZH2, ZH4, ZH5) are tethered together forming a campus environment. The company says customers at its Zurich campus can reach 90 percent of Europe within 20ms.http://www.equinix.com